Fullmetal Garden
by StellatheAlchemist
Summary: Something strange is going on in Central City. There's been a string of serial homicides, all of which involve the victim losing an arm. Can Roy Mustang and Maes Hughes solve the case before it's too late? Meanwhile, Alphonse Elric has a new friend. Who is this mysterious girl, anyway? And why is she so interested in Ed? No pairings. Rated T for violence and swears.
1. Chapter 1

**((Well, I've had this story idea for quite a while now. It's inspired by a song, and I'm sure at least a few of you will be able to guess which one. :3 I've actually had this written for about a month now, but I never finished the chapter. Now I've decided to split it into two chapters instead.**

**Also, this chapter focuses mainly on a new character who will be important to the story; no Elrics yet. And no, she is NOT one of those annoying OCs. She's actually not a fancharacter, and technically not even an OC. She's a character I adapted for the purpose of this story, and she's... Well, you'll see. xD But yeah. I guess if you really want to you could skip this chapter, but it does have some important stuff, so I wouldn't recommend it. And, uh... Don't mind the line breaks. xD))**

Prelude

_It was a sunny day in Central, perfect for gardening. The young girl hummed to herself as she made her way through the garden, skipping lightly._

_"How are you doing today, my sweeties? Are you thirsty?" She poured water on to one of the pots, smiling and still humming when she wasn't talking to the contents of the pots. She moved from pot to pot, watering the soil with a small watering can, when she stopped at one particular pot._

_"Oh dear... Wilting already?" She sighed and touched the thing gently, frowning when something fell off with a snap and landed in the soil. She attempted to stick it back on, to no avail. "Oh well... I'll deal with that later." She continued moving and came to one special pot, the item inside it fresh and beautiful._

_"Hello, my baby. You're looking lovely today," she said cheerfully, blowing a kiss at it. "I'm going to see him today. He's not doing so well... They say he might die." She stared at her feet, deep in thought. Then she looked up again and poured some water into the pot. _

_"At least I still have you."_

~~~_Tiny Miniskirts_~~~

Leo Kaiser was dying.

He was lying in a hospital bed, his breaths shallow and irregular, his face pale and contorted in pain. At his side was a scared-looking young girl, clutching his one hand in hers.

"Leo... I'm so sorry," she whispered, fighting back tears. She reached out to caress the boy's soft face, brushing his dark blonde hair out of his eyes. He weakly reached his arm up and grabbed her wrist, stopping her.

"Ri... ley..." he gasped, his voice barely audible.

"Leo..."

"...have... to... ask you... a question..."

"What is it?" The girl's voice was strained, clearly showing how close she was to crying. "Come on, Leo, you know you can have anything you want. Anything at all."

"...if... if we... could... be... reborn... would you still love me?" he asked, struggling to stay awake.

"Of course I would! I'll always love you, I promise!" Riley exclaimed, holding his hand tighter. Leo smiled a tiny bit.

"...good..." he whispered, and closed his eyes. His body fell limp, and Riley's blue-green eyes welled up with tears.

"Oh, Leo!" she sobbed, putting her head on the side of the bed. A nurse gently pulled her away from the bed, while another pulled the white sheet up over him. Riley knew that she would never see him again, that he was gone forever, and desperately wished it wasn't so. Not her Leo...

~~~_Pantsu Nugeru Mon_~~~

Riley was looking rather stressed as she went about her day. She handed in her homework silently, accepted her grades without even looking at them, didn't pay attention in class, and sat through lunch ignoring her food with a frown as if she was trying to solve some invisible puzzle. The truth was, she had quite a problem. Not only were her flowers wilting, but her boyfriend was dead too. This was a huge problem. She'd have to find some new flowers, of course, but she was running out of good sources. And most of her friends were either dead or in the hospital, so they were no help. She'd need to find a solution. But how?

She was poking at her food and attempting to think of a way to solve the problem when she happened to overhear a snippet of a conversation at the table next to her.

"...State alchemist..."

"...Automail arm..."

Riley immediately perked up upon hearing this, curious. Could it be? If this alchemist guy was interesting and talented enough that her schoolmates would gossip about him, maybe he could help her. She began listening intently, hoping for more details.

"Supposedly he became a state alchemist when he was just twelve."

"Twelve? Really? That's incredible!"

"Yeah, and remember that guy recently who was killing state alchemists?"

"Vaguely, I think so."

"I heard that the Fullmetal Alchemist was the only one to survive the attacks."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. That's what I heard, anyway."

"Woah. This guy must be pretty tough."

"I bet he's hot!"

"And he's smart, too. Best alchemist in the country."

"They say his automail arm is strong enough to bend steel."

"And I've heard he's used it to deflect bullets, too. Must have some pretty quick reflexes, huh?"  
Riley smiled to herself. Yes, surely this Fullmetal Alchemist was the person she was looking for, the one who would make her garden... perfect. She smiled as she walked to her next class, now that she knew what to do. It would all be ok. No, more than ok. It would be _wonderful_.


	2. Chapter 2

**((I'm rather proud of how quickly I got this chapter up. Only took a day or two. :D Finally managed to actually get some FMA characters in there. xDI know it still seems a bit boring, sorry about that. Things will get more interesting next chapter. :3 So anyway, here it is. I wonder if anyone can guess what's going on yet.))**

It was about 3:00, and a pair of young alchemists were making their way back to the library after a very long lunch break.

"Great, we're going to have even less time to study today," Ed complained, sighing.  
"Well if you hadn't taken so long, we would have more time," Al pointed out.

"I was hungry."

"You didn't have to have lunch twice!"

"Oh, shut up and walk."

Just as they were getting to the library, they were interrupted by a young girl running straight into Al. She crashed into him, knocking both people to the ground.

"Ow, my nose!" she exclaimed, struggling to stand up.

"Are you ok?" Al asked, concerned.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," the girl replied. "What about you?"

"I'm fine," Al said, standing up. "You should be more careful."

Ed rolled his eyes.

"Come on, Al, we're late. There's no time for giving random strangers lectures on safety."

"I wasn't going to lecture her!"

"Sure you weren't... Anyway, let's go." Ed started walking again, hoping they'd be able to get to the library quickly. Much to his dismay, so did the girl. She skipped along beside them, her short blonde hair bobbing playfully and her blue-green eyes being annoyingly sparkly and bright and all that sentimental face stuff they write in stories. Ed did not like people who looked like they belonged in girly young adult novels.

"Where are you going?" she asked curiously.

"None of your business," Ed mumbled.

"The library," Al said. Ed facepalmed.

"Oh, really? I'm going there too!" the girl announced.

"That's an interesting coincidence," Al agreed. Meanwhile, Ed was desperately hoping she would leave.

_Go away, random girl, go away... This is not a field trip..._

"So what's your name? I'm Riley."

"I'm Alphonse, but most people call me Al."

"Cool. Nice to meet you, Al."

"You too."

Ed resisted the urge to punch something and wondered why he had to get stuck with a friendly and polite little brother. He loved Al more than anything, but it was very difficult to ditch an annoying schoolgirl while Al was being all social and crap. And he just couldn't take a hint, either. Wonderful.

Finally, they made it to the library. Ed hoped that this would be their chance to finally get rid of the little brat. He immediately walked over to the restricted section.

"Welcome back, Fullmetal. How was your lunch?" the librarian asked cheerfully. The Elrics had been spending practically all their time at the library the past week, so she didn't bother asking for identification. Those boys were a familiar sight to the library staff.

"It was great," Ed mumbled absent-mindedly. "Just wonderful." The librarian chuckled.

"Did something happen?"

"You could say that." Ed made a face and went to find some books, with Al following him as usual. He started picking out books from where they left off, and putting them on a small table.

"Man, how many freaking S-authors are there?" Ed wondered out loud, putting yet another stack of books on the table.

"S-names are pretty common," Al said, shrugging. "Besides, more books is a good thing, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so. But still..." He sighed. "Go find some books from the other part of the library."

Al went to do so, leaving Ed on his own and hoping he wouldn't destroy anything while he was gone. He walked over to the alchemy section, trying to be quiet, and started looking through the books in the S section. He was looking at a book by an alchemist named Seymour when he suddenly came face-to-face with the exact same girl from before.

"Oh, hi!" she said, waving from the other side of the shelf. "I didn't expect to see you again."

"I didn't expect to see you either," Al replied, surprised.

"What are you doing here?"

"Looking for alchemy books. What about you?"

"I'm looking for alchemy books too. Although I'm not actually an alchemist... I just like looking at the pretty transmutation circles," she admitted, slightly embarrased.

"Well I can definitely understand that," Al said, laughing a little.

"So what about you, then? Are you an alchemist?" Riley asked. Al nodded.

"Yeah, I am," he replied proudly. "Not as good as my brother, though."

"That's really cool!" Riley said enthusiastically. "I can't do alchemy. It's too complicated for me. But it's really cool that you can," she continued, amazed. "I bet you're really good at it."

"Well, not THAT good... but thanks," Al said. If he'd had a real face, he would have been blushing. It wasn't often that people complimented his alchemy, since they were usually too busy admiring Ed's. He was the famous one, after all. Al didn't really mind that nobody payed attention to him, but it still made him happy when people actually acknowledged his skills.

"So, how long have you been doing alchemy?" Riley asked, quite curious.

"Oh, I don't know... Probably about ten years, more or less," Al replied.

"Woah, that's a long time!" Riley exclaimed, shocked. "How old are you, anyway?"

"Fourteen."

"So you started when you were... four?!"

"I think so, yeah."

"That's crazy! I don't think I could even read when I was four, much less do alchemy."

Al shrugged. "I was mostly just copying my brother, really."

"Is he an alchemist too?"

"Yeah. One of the best," Al added.

"Is he one of those fancy state alchemist people?"

"Uh-huh."

"But I thought you had to be an adult to be one of those," Riley pointed out, confused.

"Usually, yeah, but Brother is an exception because he's so good at it," Al explained.

"Wait... He's not that Fullmetal guy, is he?" Riley asked, suspicious.

"Yup, that's him."

"No way! That's so cool!" Riley had to keep herself from shouting in her excitement, not wanting to get kicked out of the library. "I've heard so much about him. To be honest, he seemed more like a legend than some kid," she said, laughing.

"That's probably because of all the rumors. People come up with some pretty weird stuff."

"Oh, that's true."

Suddenly Al remembered what he was doing there in the first place, and realized that Ed was probably going to kill him if he didn't hurry up. Or worse, kill the librarian, since Ed was sometimes rather overprotective. Although it wasn't really his fault, considering everything that had happened.

"I should probably get going," Al said, picking out a few more books.

"Ok. It was nice meeting you!" Riley replied, smiling.

"You too."


	3. Chapter 3

**((Finally convinced myself to finish this chapter. It's short and kinda crappy, I know, but I'm no good at writing military stuff. Things will definitely start to pick up speed in the next chapter, though. And for you Vocaloid fans, expect to see a certain badass alchoholic make a cameo quite soon. :3))**

If there was one thing Roy Mustang well and truly hated, it was paperwork. It seemed to always be in his way; It wasn't uncommon for him to be doing paperwork at lunch, or at home after work. Of course, he probably wouldn't have to do it so much during his free time if he would do it when he was supposed to, instead of procrastinating and using every excuse he knew to avoid doing it.

Being used to this, his trusted lieutenant Riza Hawkeye was not at all surprised when he let out an exasperated sigh at the sight of the neatly arranged stack of documents she placed on his desk.

"It's not going to go away by glaring at it, colonel," she pointed out, a hint of amusement in her always-professional voice.

"I know, I know," he mumbled, although still glaring at the papers.

_Maybe I'll just burn them while she's not looking, _he thought to himself. _Or drop them down a storm drain... conveniently lose my grip just as a gust of wind comes along..._

"It'd be best if you take a look at them soon," Riza continued, interrupting Roy's scheming. He gave an annoyed grunt in reply, which she took to mean he understood. Which, of course, didn't necessarily mean he would do it, but it was progress. Satisfied, she left the room.

Roy continued staring at the stack of papers for a few minutes, willing it to go away. When nothing happened after a little while, he sighed and reluctantly picked up the papers, skimming the top paper.

_Colonel Roy Mustang is hereby assigned blah blah blah... Serial homicide?_

He was a little surprised at this. Sure, there had been plenty of scattered murders over the years, but a serial homicide case was unusual. Intrigued, he began to read a little more thoroughly.

_...Case details have been provided in the included envelope... Your orders are to find and apprehend the perpetrator, using any means necessary, without putting any civilians at risk...Blah blah blah..._

He carefully opened the envelope, pulling out the documents inside and spreading them out on his desk. He read the papers inside carefully, and then read them again.

The papers detailed a string of incidents in which people were assaulted by an unknown attacker, their arms chopped off, and then left for dead. The arms were always missing. Most of them had happened at a school, and most of the victims were dead; Even Central's best doctors couldn't do much for someone who had had an arm poorly cut off and was then left lying in a locker for hours. Roy shuddered a little at the thought. He was no stranger to killings, but... These were _high school students._ Not some enemy soldiers. Just innocent, average children. And here someone was attacking them, chopping off their arms and then leaving. What kind of twisted psychopath would do that? It sickened him.

_I'm going to need a lot more coffee for this._

_~~~Nothing beats a jelly-filled doughnut~~~_

Roy was preparing to tell his subordinates about the case when there came a sharp knock at the door.

"Yeah, come i-" Before he could even finish talking, the door flew open.

"Yo, Roy! Heard you got assigned to the arms case! Guess what… So did I!" exclaimed the cheery voice of Maes Hughes, Roy's oldest and closest friend.

"Yeah, great," Roy mumbled, annoyed.

"In all seriousness, though, I'm glad we're together on this," Hughes continued, lowering his voice to a more serious tone. "It's a tough case. I'm glad to have you and your men working with me instead of someone else."

Roy nodded in agreement. Annoying though he may be, Hughes was his best friend. The two of them worked well together. Things would definitely be easier with him, especially with his connections to the investigations department.

"So what do you think we should do first?" Roy asked, absent-mindedly fingering the folder of case files.

"Probably interview survivors, I'd say," Hughes replied, shrugging.

"Then let's go. We want to get this solved as soon as possible, right?" Roy stood up, pulling on his jacket as he walked. Hughes shook his head and smiled a little as he followed his friend. Even if it didn't seem like it at first glance, Roy was a hard worker. Once he decided he was going to solve a case, then he would, and nothing could stop him. That was one thing he and Ed had in common. Although they were always fighting, they had a lot more in common than they knew.

And so within a few minutes, they were on their way to the Central City Hospital.


	4. Chapter 4

**((Finally! This was a looooong chapter. To make up for chapter 3's shortness, I guess. xD Not much to say about this one...  
Interesting side note, when I was telling my mom about this chapter and how I've killed off pretty much everyone but Hannah, she looked dead serious and said "Good job, Moffat." xD))**

Roy and Hughes stood in a hallway in the Central City Hospital, waiting for the go-ahead to interview one of the few surviving victims. The girl, named Hannah Young, was quite a fighter. She was the only one of the survivors who was capable of being interviewed. The doctors had said that she had a good chance of recovering completely, even possibly getting automail. And she wanted to do what she could to aide the investigation.

Finally, the door creaked open. Roy jumped a little at the sound.

"You can come in now," said the nurse politely. The two soldiers nodded respectfully and went in.

The girl was propped up against the back of her hospital bed, covered in bandages, with an IV in her arm and a monitor by the side of the bed. Her long white hair was draped over the pillow, unbrushed and stained slightly red. There was a painfully obvious lack of arm, with only a shoulder wrapped in bandages; It reminded Roy of the first time he met Fullmetal. Back then he was just Ed, and had looked about the same. Except that he had a look of despair in his eyes, while this girl just looked… Angry. Maybe a little lonely, tired. But there was a definite look of anger in her reddish-brown eyes, a burning desire to get revenge on her attacker.

"Hi," said Hughes, smiling in that friendly Hughes sort of way.

"Hello," she replied.

"I'm Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes, and my friend here is Colonel Roy Mustang. You're Hannah, right?" He offered his hand. She nodded and hesitantly shook it with her one remaining arm, then shook Roy's hand.

"Nice to meet you," she mumbled. She wasn't exactly shy, nor did she dislike the military officers, but she didn't quite like them either. She was also rather depressed, to say the least. Even so, she would do what she could to help them.

"We're just going to ask you some questions, ok?" Hughes explained. "And don't worry if you can't answer them." Hannah nodded again. Roy, meanwhile, said nothing. He'd rather let Hughes do the talking; he was much better with kids, even older kids like Hannah.

"To start off, how are you feeling?" he asked, smiling reassuringly. Hannah was surprised. She hadn't quite expected that.

"…Fine, I guess. The doctors said I'll survive. Maybe get automail." She shrugged, wincing a little.

"Glad to hear it. I'm sure you'll do great. Now then… Time for the serious stuff." He uncapped a pen. "You ready?"

"Yes."

"Ok. What were you doing when you were attacked?"

She thought about it. "Let's see… It was after school. I was on my way to my locker to pick up some things, and then I was going to head to the bar. It was probably about 5:00."

"And then what?"

"Someone came up from behind me and attacked me. I was unprepared… I tried to fight back, but whoever it was cut off my arm and then shoved me in my locker. I don't remember that."

Hughes nodded as he wrote it down, thinking. "Can you describe your attacker?"

"No, I couldn't get a good look. It all happened so fast. I think it was a woman, though… And probably young…"

"Could it have been one of the students?" Roy asked, finally speaking up. Hannah paused.

"…I think it's possible, yes." She nodded.

"How awful," Hughes muttered. "This case just gets worse and worse, doesn't it?" He sighed. "Anything else we should know?"

She paused to think about it. "Hmm… She mentioned something about a garden."

"A garden? What could that mean?" Roy asked, frowning.

"No idea," she admitted, shaking her head. "I wish I could tell you more, but that's all I know."

"Well, thanks," Hughes said, standing up. "And feel better, ok?"

"Thank you, sir," Hannah replied, waving as the two men prepared to leave.

"…Oh, and colonel?"

"Yeah?"

"Give them hell for me."

He smiled and nodded. "We will."

Just as they were about to turn the corner, Roy nearly crashed into Havoc, who was running at a speed probably completely against hospital protocol and looking quite exhausted.

"Havoc? What are you doing?" he asked, confused. "Did you… Run all the way here..?"

"It… Colonel…" he said inbetween gasps, leaning against the wall, "There's been another attack!"

"Well what are you waiting for, then? Let's go!" Roy almost-shouted, nearly forgetting they were in a hospital. Soon all three men were running through the hospital, shouting a quick "'Scuse us" at a shocked nurse, practically throwing themselves in the car. Roy started it before they even closed the doors, driving as fast as possible. If there was a speed limit, he didn't care. All that mattered was that they get to the scene of the crime as fast as possible.

_~~~Tetopettenson~~~_

Within moments they arrived at the school, easily hopping over the "Crime scene - keep out" tape. Riza and the others were already there- Always one step ahead of her work, that Hawkeye- and Roy, Hughes, and Havoc rushed to join them.

"What's going on?" Roy demanded.

"A girl has been found in her locker," Riza explained. "Her arm is missing."

"Dead?"

"Technically, no." She sighed. "There's very little chance she'll make it."

Roy bit his lip and stared at the ground, his hands clenched into fists. Hughes put a hand on his back.

"Hey… It's not your fault. There's nothing we could do."

"We could've saved her if we had gotten here earlier." He sighed, knowing there was no point in dwelling on the past, and looked up. "How long has she been there?"

"Approximately one hour, sir," Riza replied.

"Name?"

"Mikayla Hathaway."

"I'll look into it," Hughes announced.

So the two of them went to examine the body. It was a tall girl, most likely about 15 years old. Her long blonde pigtails hung off the stretcher, dragging in the mud, and her carefully manicured teal nails were turned red with blood. There was a clean cut where her arm had once been attached to her body, the shoulder bone exposed and stained blood red. Her other shoulder was bruised and she had scrapes up her legs and arm, as well as tears in her clothes, most likely from being violently shoved into the locker. Her pretty face was contorted in pain. Roy and Hughes watched respectfully as a soldier carefully draped a white sheet over her, confirming her death.

Roy clenched his fist in anger.

"I _will_ put a stop to this," he vowed quietly.


	5. Chapter 5

**((Huzzah! Update! And it's a long one, too. Longest yet, actually; Not counting this note, it has 1,540 words. I have been writing a lot lately… Hmm. I guess it's a good thing, right? xD**

**Lots of Ed angst and guilt in this chapter. Poor little midget. I feel so bad for him… Not. I love Ed torture. *Shot* Actually, I much prefer Al torture, but Ed torture is fun too. :3**

**Also, I suppose I should explain the cover. Well... I made it a while back, shortly before finishing my new Roy model. I was bored, and I thought it could use a cover. It was my first time using a blood effect, so I kinda went overboard... a lot... xD I considered not putting a certain person in there, but I figured it's already so obvious that anyone who hasn't figured it out by now probably doesn't know who she is anyway. So yeah. xD))**

Ed did not like children.

Of course, said child was probably only about a year younger than him, but he chose to ignore that fact.

He had just gotten started with his research when he was interrupted by a certain irritating girl. She was just the kind of person he hated; Ridiculously friendly, cheerful, energetic, and to be frank, cute. Not in a romantic way, more like a kitten or a toddler would be considered cute. Like her obnoxiously large white hair bow, an accessory Ed thought nobody above the age of eight should wear.

Annoyed, he pretended not to notice her, hoping she'd get bored and go away. However, after a few minutes of her staring at him, it became obvious she wasn't going to leave. And there was no way he could focus on his research with her stupid little girly eyes boring into his head like a laser beam.

"What?" he mumbled, glancing up at her with a scowl.

"Nothing," the girl replied, shrugging. "Whatcha readin'?"

"Why should I tell you?" Ed retaliated, suspicious. To his surprise, the girl didn't say anything. Instead, she bent over, tilting her head to read the spine of Ed's book.

"The Search for Immortality: Finding the Truth of the Philosopher's Stone," she read out loud, blinking in curiosity. "What's that?"

"It's just what it says it is, dumbass," Ed replied, losing his patience. Didn't this kid have a brain?

"I see," she said simply.

"Uh-huh. Bye," Ed said, hoping she'd take the hint and LEAVE.

"Hey, is it true you have an automail arm?" she asked, apparently oblivious to Ed's futile attempts to get rid of her.

"Does it matter?"

" Yes."

"Good. I don't care. Have a nice day."

"If you don't want to talk about it, you could just say so…" Riley pointed out, seeming slightly hurt.

"Well, I don't, so leave me alone."

"Alright then." She shrugged. "But before I go, do you want to get lunch?"

"No. Go away."

"Fine… Oh, tell your brother I said hi, ok?" she added, smiling cutely before skipping away. Ed let out a breath he didn't even realize he was holding and slammed his head into his book.

"Stupid little brat…" he mumbled. Of course, he had no intention of carrying out her wishes. No way. Al didn't need to associate with such lower life forms. Although it WAS true that Al hadn't had a friend his age since they dropped out of school… But still. There was something not quite right about that girl. He'd see soon enough.

~~~_I'll take a potato chip and eat it~~~_

Ed was woken from his light sleep by his stomache growling. He sighed and slowly sat up, checking his watch. 1:26. Lunch time.

"Come on Al, let's go get some lunch," Ed yawned, stretching. After no reply came, he opened one eye and found that Al was not there. Alarmed, he stood up, hoping nothing had happened. Of course, he knew he was being ridiculous. Al wouldn't let himself get kidnapped; He had probably just wandered off to find a cat or something. Still, Ed thought he should find Al. So he wandered the library, hoping he hadn't gone far.

Sure enough, Ed soon found Al, conversing with none other than Riley.

"So then we tried to put it back together but the top kept falling off so- Oh, hi Brother!" Al said cheerfully, waving.

"Al, what the hell are you doing?" Ed demanded, annoyed.

"I was just talking to Riley…"

"Yeah, I can see that," Ed replied, scowling. He grabbed Al's giant hand and started dragging him towards the entrance of the library. "Come on, Al. We're going."

"But… Why?" Al asked, slightly confused.

"Because I'm hungry, that's why! And in case you've forgotten, we didn't come here to socialize!" Ed snapped angrily. He knew he shouldn't be so hard on Al, but he had really scared him by disappearing like that. Ed even felt slightly jealous that Al would rather be with that Riley girl than research with him, not that he'd ever admit it.

"Oh, are you going for lunch? Can I come?" Riley asked, following them.

"Sure!"

"HELL NO!"

"But Brother-"

"Don't you 'But Brother' me! She's NOT coming with us! We are going to get lunch, alone, and then go home!" Ed shouted, quite firm. Unfortunately, he had gone a bit too far. Now Al was annoyed.

"Fine then! You can go have lunch by yourself! I'Mstaying here, and I don't care what you have to say about it!" Al protested defiantly, crossing his arms and refusing to move.

"Why the hell not?!"

"Because! I don't WANT to go! There's no point anyway! And I… I don't want to be with you right now! All you care about is the stupid research! It doesn't matter what I want, because YOU just want to research all the time! Maybe I want to do other things, did you ever consider that?!" Al shouted, a rare moment in which the normally shy and polite boy lost his temper.

At that very second, Ed knew he had screwed up. Badly. His gold eyes widened as he realized just how mean he had been to his dear little brother, and for what? Nothing but his own selfishness and baseless dislike for some random girl who had apparently decided to be their friend. Why the hell had he made such a big deal out of it? She'd probably forget about them as soon as they were travelling again. And besides… Annoying as she was, what was the harm in letting her hang around for a while? After all, Al seemed to like her. He hadn't had a friend his own age in years, and now he finally had the chance to, at least for a while. What right did Ed have to take that from him?

"…Fine," he mumbled, not looking at Al.

"What?"

"She can come," Ed said, slightly louder this time. He didn't want to spend a minute with that girl, but if it meant making Al happy… He'd do it. It certainly wasn't the worst thing he'd done for Al's sake.

"…Brother…"

Al was slightly surprised. He hadn't expected Ed to react like that. Maybe he had gone too far… He knew how much Ed blamed himself for everything that had happened, and he knew Ed worked hard (Sometimes even a little too hard) to find a way to get their bodies back. It wasn't fair of him to yell at Ed like that; He shouldn't have been so selfish. But he also knew that Ed was unlikely to change his mind, so he had to just accept it.

"Thank you," he told Ed quietly.

Riley, meanwhile, was watching with a slightly scared expression.

"…Um… It's ok, I don't have to come if it's too much trouble-"

"Nah, it's fine," Ed insisted, putting on his I'm-pretending-my-life-doesn't-suck smile. "Sorry for being so rude."

Riley glanced at Al nervously, unsure how to react to this sudden change in Ed's personality.

"Uh, ok…" She replied hesitantly.

"Come on, let's go," Ed announced. "I'm starving."

_~~~Don't drop the banana~~~_

Ed, Al, and Riley sat at a small round table in an outdoor café. Ed had a pile of sandwiches, Riley had a salad, and Al was pretending not to be hungry. Which wasn't exactly a lie, since he really _wasn't hungry,_ but it wasn't the whole truth either.

"So," Riley began, sipping her bubble tea (Something Ed found to be incredibly girly), "Do you guys live in Central?"

"No," Ed responded through a mouthful of sandwich.

"Sort of," Al elaborated. "We travel most of the time, but we do have an apartment here."

"You travel? Cool!"

Ed resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He really disliked this girl, but he had to put up with her. For Al's sake.

"Hey, Ed, can I see your automail?" Riley asked. Ed nearly choked on his soda.

"…What?!"

"I want to see your automail," she repeated. "I've never seen any before."

"Why the hell should I show you?!" Ed demanded, holding his right arm protectively.

"Aww, come on, Brother. What's the harm?" Al said.

Ed was about to say no, when he remembered why he was there in the first place.

_You did this to him. You took his life away._

Sighing, Ed pulled his glove off and rolled his sleeve up slightly. He didn't like exposing the automail in public, but if that was what Al wanted, he would do it.

"Oooooh!" Riley gasped, staring at the automail in awe. "That's amazing! How far does it go?"

"All the way up to my shoulder," Ed mumbled, thoroughly embarrassed.

"Wow… That's really amazing," she said quietly.

Ed muttered something along the lines of "Yeah, whatever." He silently pulled his sleeve down and put his glove back on.

Riley yawned, stretching her arms out behind her back. "It's getting late. I should probably get going," she announced. She dug around in her pockets and produced 1,000 cenz, which she put on the table.

"There. That ought to about cover my lunch. See you guys later!"

"It was nice seeing you," Al replied, waving goodbye as Riley walked off.


End file.
